Natan Sharansky - YouTube Natan Sharansky Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Apr 30, 2013 Natan Sharansky A little background: Sharansky was a Soviet refusenik. He became an advocate for human rights in the Soviet Union in the 1970s after he was refused a visa to travel to Israel. He endured 13 years of hard labor and solitary confinement before becoming the first political prisoner released by Gorbachev. He says he kept his sanity in prison by playing blind chess by himself. Sharansky also defeated World Chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in a game during a simultaneous chess exhibition event.

Category From the Archive: Nelson Mandela and the Jews | Jewish Telegraphic Agency From the Archive: Nelson Mandela and the Jews By Adam Soclof December 5, 2013 5:16pm A look at of Nelson Mandela’s relationship with the Jewish community, as seen through the JTA Archive. Timeline: Nelson Mandela and the Jews April 2, 1985 – Black-Jewish Freedom Seders , co-sponsored by the Reform movement’s UAHC and the NAACP, honor jailed Soviet and African dissidents, including Natan Sharansky and Nelson Mandela. February 11, 1986 – Natan Sharansky released from Soviet prison. Two days later, JTA reports that in 1984, the South African government rejected a proposed prisoner exchange that would have freed both Mandela and Sharansky . Sharansky also comments on his hope that Mandela’s freedom will be secured. February 17, 1986 – Irwin Cotler, human rights lawyer representing Sharansky and Mandela, et al.

(and eventual Canadian Member of Parliament) “announces an international council of lawyers who will ‘work relentlessly for the release of all the Shcharanskys and Mandelas now rotting in various prisons in the USSR and South Africa.'” March 7, 1986 – In a cable , B’nai B’rith leader Gerald Kraft calls on South African President P.W. Botha to release Mandela. December 10, 1986 – Accepting the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Elie Wiesel refers to the imprisonment of Mandela, internal exile of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, and the denial of polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa’s freedom of speech a “disgrace” of equal magnitude. February 2, 1990 – Following a speech by President F.W. de Klerk, in which Mandela’s release from prison was promised, the Jewish community in South Africa is hopeful for political reform . February 11, 1990 – Nelson Mandela freed from prison, four years to the day after Sharansky.

World Jewry “ reacts with elation “ February 27, 1990 – Mandela raises eyebrows in when he embraces PLO leader Yasser Arafat in Lusaka, Zambia, likening the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the struggle against South African apartheid. “If the truth alienates the powerful Jewish community in South Africa, that’s too bad,” says Mandela. June 10, 1990 – Prior to a U.S. visit, Mandela meets with American Jewish leaders in Geneva , apologizing for previous statements that may have offended Jewish groups. The meeting, described as “warm, friendly and cordial,” reportedly played a role in preempting American Jewish protests against the African National Congress leader. June 20, 1990 – Mandela welcomed by most U.S. Jewish groups. The following night, in a nationally televised program on ABC, he refers to Arafat as a “comrade in arms,” leaving Jewish groups in a bind . On June 29, Sharansky meets with Mandela for the first time in Los Angeles, but fails to sway the latter on the PLO.

July 1, 1990 – South Eastern Hebrew Center in Rosettenville, a Johannesburg synagogue and school, is bombed and defaced with graffiti in the early morning with no injuries reported. Jewish leaders attribute the attack to scapegoating by right-wing nationialist groups, who oppose the community’s support for the anti-apartheid movement. September 14, 1990 – Despite numerous death threats, a Reform rabbi in Johannesburg goes forward with his plan to invite Mandela to speak at his synagogue. “Addressing the Reform congregation, the yarmulka-clad Mandela said, “If Zionism means the right of the Jewish people to seize territory and deny the Palestinian people the right to self-determination, we condemn it.” October 24, 1990 – Mandela arouses the anger of Australian Jewish groups upon his arrival in Canberra , likening Israel to a “terrorist state” and accusing her of “slaughtering defenseless, innocent Arabs.” July 14, 1991 – Following U.S. lead, Israel lifts cultural and economic sanctions against South Africa after four years.

October 18, 1991 – For the first time in 20 years, the United Nations General Assembly opts not to censure Israel for ties to South Africa. April 15, 1992 – On the eve of Passover, Mandela publicly acknowledges South African Jewry’s “particularly outstanding contribution” to his people’s “struggle for freedom and social justice” for the first time. May 4, 1992– South Africa’s Jerusalem Club invites Black speaker to address attendees for the first time, helping to forge ties between the Jewish committee and the Mandela-led ANC. August 16, 1992 – As South Africa lifts its apartheid law banning suburban settlement by blacks, Mandela moves to the upscale Jewish suburb of Houghton. His new neighbor, Jewish MP Tony Leon of the Democratic Party — an ANC critic — welcomes Mandela with a chocolate cake . August 1993 – Addressing the annual South African Jewish Board of Deputees conference, Mandela is greeted with a standing ovation , signaling improved ties following the leader’s prior remarks about the PLO.

November 1993 – The Clinton-brokered peace accord between Israel and the PLO cited as a factor improving relations between the Jewish state and African nations. Mandela tells Liel that he will nominate Arafat and Rabin for a shared Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, which they would ultimately be awarded. March 1994 – With one month to go before South Africa’s first democtratic presidential elections, a JTA report anticipates “ limited Jewish support ” for Mandela’s ANC. May 2, 1994 – After several days of voting, Mandela elected president in South Africa’s first all-race democratic elections; Jewish sentiment is reported to be predominantly optimistic . That Saturday, Mandela attends Shabbat services at a Green and Sea Point Hebrew Congregation in Cape Town, the largest synagogue in the Southern hemisphere. From the pulpit, Mandela appeals for the return of Jewish expatriates who left for security concerns. May 12, 1994 – JTA writes that Mandela met with Israeli President Ezer Weizman before greeting several international dignitaries at a meeting in Cape Town. PLO leader Yasser Arafat was invited to join them.

“He calls Arafat by his first name, Yasser,” Weizman recalled. “They embraced, and he said he and Arafat were brothers. I said: ‘Then, Mr. President, we are cousins.’ “ May 18, 1994– Arafat stirs up a fury in Israel concerning remarks made while in South Africa for Mandela’s inauguration. In a speech at a South African mosque , Arafat said, “Jihad will continue and Jerusalem is not for the Palestinian people. It is for all the Muslim people.” Arafat claimed that he intended the word to mean a peaceful crusade rather than a holy war, as the Arabic expression is generally interpreted in English, adding, “I’ll continue my jihad for peace.” June 1994 – Following Mandela’s election, Israel lifts seven-year arms embargo against South Africa. August 1994 – Mandela awarded Anne Frank Medal in Amsterdam for his contributions towards advancing democracy in South Africa. Later that month, Mandela went on to say, “The victory of the democratic forces in South Africa is a contribution to this worldwide effort to rid humanity of the evil of racism. It is Anne Frank’s victory.

It is an achievement of humanity as a whole,” November 1994 – Israeli professor Michael Wolfsohn reveals that in 1989, Mandela’s release was on the table as part of large prisoner exchange for missing Israeli soldier Ron Arad until the Berlin Wall fell . December 21, 1994 – JTA publishes a follow-up piece addressing the South African Jewish communities diversifying views of the ANC-led government. Natan The Liar | Barry Chamish Natan The Liar - by Barry Chamish ©, Jan. 24th, 2005 I was contacted by two distinguished Russian-Israelis last week, (Jan. 05). First, the respected journalist Effie Maideneck made a pitch to me to investigate the harassment of a "truthseeker like me," Dr. Yuli Nudelman. Then I was honored with three e-mails from the revered former Prisoner of Zion, Ida Nudel. She also wrote, "Yuli needs help." (Mrs. Nudel's correspondence will follow this article).. Dr. Yuli Nudelman is the former chief surgeon of Rambam Hospital.

In the 1960s he was a leader of the movement to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. When the Soviets released him, he quickly made his mark in Israel as a major in the IDF, awarded for his battlefield surgery, then as a crusader against local medical corruption. He was a columnist for the left wing crusading newsmagazine HaOlam HaZeh and later the author of two powerful books exposing serious malpractice in the Israeli medical system. In 1999 he released a book in Hebrew and Russian called, Sharansky Unmasked . Within, he claimed that Natan Sharansky, then Housing Minister, was a longtime KGB agent with deep ties to the worldwide Russian mafia. Soon after its release, Sharansky sued Dr. Nudelman for libel and the Jerusalem district court ruled that he had to pay Sharansky the unheard of compensation of nearly $200,000. This was widely acknowledged as a precedent aimed at restricting the most basic rights of freedom of expression. Dr. Nudelman's brother Boris was also his partner in the Sharansky research project and he died, overcome by the injustice of the trial. On Jan. 20, Dr.

Nudelman met me at my home for an intense interview. He also gave me his book on Sharansky and a thick stack of evidence which left me convinced of the veracity of his claims. I warn my readers that you will find the following report discouraging. However, I have long warned that the leadership of the Jewish people has been thoroughly infiltrated by frauds and criminals claiming they are working on our behalf. That Sharansky is just another crook serving ugly interests should not come as that much of a surprise. Before presenting the quite shocking evidence, we begin with my interview of Dr. Nudelman: YN - In 1962, the KGB initiated a program of dissidence against the Soviet Union. By running the dissident groups, it could control the various factions which were dissatisfied with Soviet repression and later utilize the leaders as agents in the West. They were known as, spies of influence. By appearing to be anti-Soviet they were welcomed abroad and trusted. They could worm themselves into the top echelons of foreign governments. Sharansky was one of these agents, and possibly the most successful. BC - But wasn't he a Zionist leader in the Soviet Union?

Didn't he spend eight years in prison for his activities? YN - He was never a leader. He was unknown to most of us until the Western media turned him into a hero. He supposedly spent seven years in jail and one year in a prison camp. No one saw him in jail except Mendelevich, and he claims he only saw his eyes through a peephole. Understand this, there is not one witness to him sitting in jail. He spent a year in a prison camp as a hut commander. That was the position given to KGB informers. BC - But what about his wife Avital, who fought for his freedom in Israel? YN - All a KGB show, like her supposed conversion to Judaism in 1974. She is from a family of spies. Her brother Michael was sent to Washington to infiltrate the CIA. He got into trouble there and fled to Israel. Not long after he arrived, he was poisoned to death at age 44. BC - What was the point of this charade surrounding Sharansky? YN - He infiltrated Israel as a worldwide hero. Remember, he got here through a spy exchange, not simply released from prison and allowed to leave like all the rest of us.

Within a few years he was living in a $1.5 million dollar home. Where did he get that kind of money? Next, he was in the government cabinet. Now he's really useful. When the powers that run America want Netanyahu to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, who do they send to the Wye plantation? Their agents Sharon and Sharansky. When the same powers seek a justification for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, who do they turn to but the trusted Sharansky. Just last week Condoleeza Rice called Sharansky the father of the movement to turn the Middle East democratic. When Putin is condemned worldwide for the slaughter in Chechnya, who comes to his rescue but Sharansky. Incidentally, that turned out to be a big mistake for Sharansky. BC - Why? YN - Because after my book was published, he called in his chips. He asked Putin to release his whole KGB file to him so no one could ever see it. Then he released on the Internet the parts of the file he thought would serve him best. He chose the wrong files to release because they revealed what we all knew.

During his interrogation and trial in 1977-8, Sharansky gave the KGB a long list of Jewish activists. It was during his trial that the witch hunt against us began in earnest. Dozens of Jewish activists were arrested, some beaten severely. Sharansky was nothing but a dirty little snitch. These are serious allegations. Now we look at the evidence, much of which comes from the protocols of Nudelman's trial. What stands out is that a Who's Who of former Soviet Jewish activists testified on Nudelman's behalf, whereas not one witness except his wife, testified for Sharansky. He could find not even one witness who knew him from prison and who saw his bravery in action. Sharansky The Snitch I testify, as a former citizen of the USSR, grown and educated under a totalitarian regime persecuting any dissent, that Mr. Sharansky's behaviour during investigation resulted in the profound suffering of several people who were subjected to additional persecutions because the KGB's attention to them had been drawn by Mr. Sharansky's thirty-three page request to the chief investigator of his case, Col. V.I. Volodin...

An attentive reader, provided he is a former Soviet Citizen with an experience of conflict with the KGB, is struck by the difference between Sharansky"s description of his imprisonment in jails and camps on the one hand, and the personal experiences of many people, on the other hand... Mr. Sharansky disregarded the ethical norms of the group with which he identified and based his defence on requesting the KGB investigators to interrogate activists and participants of the emigration movement...Upon completion of his case investigation, the KGB decided, on January 12 and 18, 1978 to open additional cases against 33 activists of the Jewish emigration movement. Six Jews from the list were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms: G. Goldshtein, L. Volvosky, B. Chernobylsky, V. Slepak, M. Slepak and I. Nudel. - Deposition to Judge Zvi Segal, Jerusalem District Court from Ida Nude According to my personal experience, Mr. Sharansky has surrounded himself in Israel with cynical and dirty persons without moral values and mafia-like mentality and behaviour... Some official documents presented to the court confirmed that Mr.

Sharansky really collaborated with the KGB inquest and mentioned some names of refuseniks, afterward punished. - Press Release from Vadim Rotenberg, Professor of Human Psychology, Tel Aviv University, 18/08/02 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Of Housing And Construction Natan Sharansky, had passed to the KGB interrogators the names of aliya activists and other Jews who tried to emigrate to Israel, and even requested the KGB interrogators to investigate them and study the files of tens of refuseniks all across the USSR who tried to emigrate to Israel at that time. Contrary to his image as a prisoner of Zion who heroically struggled against the KGB, Sharansky betrayed his comrades, the aliyah activists and other Jews who tried to emigrate to Israel... It was due to the exposure of Sharansky's, "Request Of Solicitation," that Prisoners of Zion, Ms. Ida Nudel, and Prof. Kislek (who was severely beaten after Sharansky requested he be investigated) understood why the KGB made hundreds of arrests of Jews after Sharansky's arrest and trial.

This also explains why later in prison camp, Sharansky was appointed a dnyevalny, a ward orderly - a job reserved for informers and collaborators... Despite the public standing of Minister Sharansky, and the grim matters exposed in court, not a single person came to testify in his favor. - Letter Of Appeal submitted to Supreme Court Of Israel by attorney Yoram Mushkat We, the undersigned, former Prisoners Of Zion, aliyah activists, and refuseniks are appealing to you in regard to a situation compromising state security in light of facts brought out in the suit of Sharansky vs. Nudelman. We have arrived at the following conclusions: Sharansky had created his famous image based on a false myth concerning both his activities in the USSR and his "prominent" role in the Zionist movement, and his "heroic" deeds in prison. Some details of his camp life as written is his book do not look like the real ones we actually encountered in the labor camps. In the initial stage of the hearings, Sharansky testified that he had never mentioned any names of people involved in Zionist activities while interrogated by the KGB.

However, after being shown in the courtroom the KGB archive documents, he changed his testimony, claiming that while he had indeed given the names of aliyah activists, he did so, "to assure that the names should remain in the KGB archives for future use by historians." We believe that Sharansky is not the person he is trying to picture and will pay for him to undergo a lie detector test to establish the facts. Citizens of the State of Israel: Michael Babel, Ilya Voitovestsky, Arye Vudka, Yigael Yehudi, Dr. Felix Kochubievsky, Eduard Kuznetsov, Silva Zalmanson, Ephraim Melamed, Yehudit Yehudi-Nepomniaschchi, Meir Nepomniaschi, advocate Jacov Maniovich, Ida Nudel, Dr. Victor Ben Zvi (Polsky), Prof. Vadim Rotenberg, Jakov Segal. - Appeal to Prof.

Elyakim Rubinstein, Attorney General of the State of Israel Natan of the Mafia In the courtroom Sharansky categorically denied receiving $100,000 from Grigory Luchansky, while the latter confirmed under oath to giving Sharansky the money and gave the bank account that Sharansky asked the money be transferred to. - Appeal To The Attorney General, Babel et al I have met Israeli Minister Natan Sharansky about five times in Israel and abroad. Mr. Sharansky asked me for a contribution and I agreed to contribute the sum to an association whose account was in Bank Hapoalim. - Affidavit of Grigori Luchansky, Presented To Jerusalem District Court Kutzenov added that Luchansky complained to him that, "Sharansky promised to help get him a passport, got money, but did nothing. Later in 1996, I asked Sharansky why he didn't help Luchansky. Sharansky said he can't help him since Luchansky appears in first place on a CIA list of members of the Russian mafia." Either Luchansky signed a false affidavit or Sharansky committed perjury.

- Haaretz, Akiva Eldar, 14/3/02 Gavriella's car was discovered after he went to Grigori Lerner's office where he met with Sofa Landver, formerly a Labor Party member of the Knesset. Lerner was convicted on three attempts to bribe elected officials...His arrest in 1997 dragged a parade of politicians to the National Unit For Serious And International Crime Investigations including Natan Sharansky, who received a $100,000 contribution from Lerner, and Labour MK Shimon Peres, who had promoted the career of Sofa Landver from being his Russian teacher to being a Knesset member... - Haaretz 12.3/04 One politician already ensnared in the web of organized crime is Russian-born Natan Sharansky...Sharansky has publicly admitted that his party has accepted contributions from NORDEX president Grigori Luchansky. Officials from the US Congress, the State Department, and the CIA pleaded with Sharansky to sever his ties to Luchansky.

Says Winer, "We told him about Luchansky's MO: bribery, influence peddling and that he was a bridge between governments and organized crime." Sharansky simply refused. - From, How The Russian Mob Has Invaded America , Robert I. Friedman, Liberty Books In March, 2004, Sharansky took personal responsibility for securing the release of Jonathan Pollard, and wangled a law giving him 4.5 million shekels a year until Pollard's release. Pollard was not amused. On March 11.04 Pollard wrote Sharansky: I am stunned that you have authored a bill that legislates political lassitude and financial corruption. As head of the committee to secure my release, it was your job to know about this law and do exactly that - secure my release - not provide additional funds for your office. was in Moscow in 1977 when Sharansky was arrested and was partly responsible for bringing out legal documents to be used in his campaign for freedom. Now I feel it is time to say it like it is: I do not believe Sharansky was a sincere human rights activist.

He used the platform to gain stardom at a time when Western eyes were focused on the Soviet Union. Once he got here, his lack of support from olim who had been his former compatriots showed what he really was: a self-seeker. - Jerusalem Post 12/5/04 - Zelda Harris The former Jewish activists of the Soviet Union fought to live in a Jewish democracy. Today, too many realize they traded one dictatorship for another, more subtle one. The following letter from former Prisoner Of Zion, Ida Nudel, expresses this frustration and disappointment. Dear Mr. Chamish, First of all, let me thank you for permitting to use your Internet address. I admire the courage of your challenging the political monopoly in our country and unveiling their secrets, deals and misdeeds. Your project Very Uncivil Obedience has raised my reminiscences of not-so-old personal experience of civil disobedience that was practiced by Soviet Jewish and other citizens in the 1970s. I would be most grateful if you could devote a bit of your time to my thoughts about your protest.

Having lived in Israel for 17 years, I cannot imagine people that might come forward and start the action at the level being proposed by you. You are actually appealing to intellectuals and businessmen the category of population that is most conservative when a risk is involved of loosing their social privileges. Something would probably become known on the fate of 34 officers who signed a protest letter. I very much fear that most of them will be morally broken and humiliated in a most primitive manner, and their dignity will be wrecked. Those who would prove stauncher if any will also pay for that wonderful day when they behaved like free citizens. I’ve come to Israel from a totalitarian country but with an experience of a citizen perceiving my personal responsibility to the society in which I live. I cannot help but to compare the moral and social environment and the unwritten laws of my both societies the past and the present. I’m sorry to say that the moral spirit and the cynical bureaucratic attitude towards the population in the Jewish land have little difference from the Bolshevik regime. The fact that anybody can freely leave Israel makes it possible for the bureaucracy to conceal its Bolshevik character.

Instead of being put in prisons and psychiatric hospitals as it was done in the USSR, the dissidents just leave the society and the country in the care of their more passive compatriots. The people are living in a fear of the omnipotent bureaucracy and realizing their complete helplessness against it. When talking to simple people, I hear it far too often: Whatever I could do I’ve done: my children live in America! With regard to demonstrations, I share your doubts as to the sincerity of the settlement leaders beyond the “green line”. They’re civil servants and encounter serious personal problems when challenging their employer the state. On the other hand, the youth participation in the demonstrations contributes to the development of their self-consciousness and of their perception of themselves as something more than merely toy soldiers. The passive and voiceless intellectuals are clones of their Soviet counterparts. I am heading a small voluntary organization that works for the prevention of asocial behavior among new immigrant schoolchildren in the “developing towns” of the Negev region, and have gained an experience of dealing with the local municipal establishment. It is clear to me beyond any doubt how far is our society from a real democracy.

It may rather be described as a two-faced creature whose outside-looking face is that of Western-style diplomats and scientists, while the inside looking one has all the features of a lazy and corrupt Turkish colonial official… Should your idea of disobedience be first implemented outside Israel, than some Israeli version might probably emerge. But who would help your great idea to materialize? Maybe Christian Zionists? The idea of a Jewish state isn’t too popular with the free world’s Jews, it causes them such a headache. With sincere wishes for your success and good health, Ida Nudel 13/01/05 RE: My last piece on Stanley Fischer. He arrived in Israel last week and two days later, the Bronfmans of the CFR announced their acquisition of majority shares in the country's third largest bank, Israel Discount (IDB), The financial takeover of the CFR is in full swing. I have an idea and I appeal for your cooperation. While Israel crumbles, the facts just aren't getting out. I will match your donation to help change things a bit.

If you send me the regular $25 price for my new book Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism And The Holocaust, I will donate two other books, Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin and The Last Days Of Israel to the public, church, synagogue or school library of your choice. Just send me the mailing address of the library, I'll send out the books with your name inscribed within as the donor. If we work together on this idea, we can expand the readership for the truth manifold and maybe, help preserve the honor and viability of Israel. As always, my books 30 years after Glienicke Bridge | Rachel Sharansky Danziger | The Blogs | The Times of Israel This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content here are presented solely by the author, and The Times of Israel assumes no responsibility for them. In case of abuse, report this post . 30 years after Glienicke Bridge Share Blogger Rachel Sharansky Danziger Rachel is a lifelong resident of Jerusalem and a keen observer of its colorful spiritual and human scene.

She recently … [More] completed her M.A in American History, and continues to explore questions of religion, emotions, and social relations both in history and in real life. [Less] Follow or contact: When America was actually great Thirty years ago today, my father, Natan Sharansky, crossed a bridge. The bridge was Glienicke Bridge, of Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” fame. When my father walked onto it he was a prisoner in the Soviet block, though a free man in spirit. He found freedom on the day he stopped hiding his opinions. He earned freedom as he fought for his right to be a Jew in Israel, and for his fellow Russians’ human rights. He preserved it as the KGB imprisoned his body, trying and failing to force him to recant. After nine years of imprisonment, my father stepped off Glienicke Bridge, and became a free man in body as well. He finally left the USSR behind him, and had my mother, and Israel, ahead. Natan (Anatoly) Sharansky is escorted by US Ambassador Richard Burt after Sharansky had crossed the border at Glienicker Bridge on Feb.

11, 1986 at the start of an East-West spy and prisoner exchange in Berlin. (AP Photo/Heribert Proepper) * * * Every year, on this day, my family gathers for a private “seder” of sorts. My father wears the kipa a fellow inmate made for him. He pulls out the little Psalms book that was his companion in prison. And like the children on Pesach, we ask questions to celebrate this exodus. When we were younger, my sister and I mostly wanted to understand what “prison” was, and were there animals there, perchance? But as we grew and matured, our questions expanded with us. How did you find the strength to go on, Ima and Abba? And how did you survive the shock of normal life, once restored? A lifetime of questions wrought a curious effect: While I’ve never seen Glienicke Bridge with my own eyes, and I naturally couldn’t see any of the struggle for myself, I feel like I did. Glienicke is ingrained in my blood, in the inner geography of the self. There, right there inside me, it spans over decades and pain.

Archipova Street, where my parents first met, is behind it. A little to the side, I can glimpse Vladimir Slepak’s Moscow apartment , and the moment of my father’s arrest. Somewhere within me stands a lit room in Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook’s Jerusalem apartment. It’s dark outside, but the rabbi is up. Far, far away, the Soviet authorities are plotting to accuse my father and his comrades in arms of treason and espionage. My mother’s mentors, Rabbi Tzvi Tau and his wife Hannah, brought her to talk with Rav Kook. Standing in the little lit room, surrounded by his students, the elderly rabbi screams. “Our brothers in Russia are in danger,” he yells. “We must fight for them.” Plans are made, and the base of my mother’s future struggles is formed, right there in the little room. This group will come to be known as “I am my brother’s keeper,” the headquarters of a decade-long campaign. “But Rabbi,” exclaims one of the students, “what about learning Torah? Wouldn’t this struggle cause bitul Torah?” The rav slams his hand on the table.

“He who does not know when to close the books,” he thunders, “shouldn’t open them in the first place.” My inner map breaks into many different alleys at this point. To the left lie the various two-room apartments that hosted the headquarters of the struggle in the following years, right there in people’s private homes, between growing children and domestic routines. To the right lie the people who embraced the cause abroad. I can see my mother marching with them, talking with them, asking and accepting their help. I can see her sleeping on countless couches in people’s homes from Vancouver to Brussels, from Paris to New York. I can see them embracing her and giving her strength. Ahead lies a different kind of struggle. Far, far removed from the clamor of demonstrations and phone calls and speeches, my father sits in a cell, fighting a lonely war. “Recant,” press his gaolers. “Recant, and you can leave.” But my father isn’t truly alone. Despite the distance, despite the quiet, he is tied to the marching masses. He is tied to the Jewish People. He can hear their voices. And he wouldn’t let them down. * * * In recent years, our children started asking the questions.

Animals became prominent again, as did the diet in prison and and my father’s book of Psalms. I watch them walking the same paths we did as children, their eyes wide with wonder as they form their own inner geographies. But first, before the questions begin, we make sure to tell them the basic story: Bad people didn’t want Saba to come here, so they locked him in a little room. Savta yelled, “Let Saba come to Eretz Yisrael,” but they didn’t listen to her when she yelled alone. So Savta went all over the world, and because “all Israel are responsible for one another,” Jews everywhere started yelling with her. They yelled so loud, and for so long, that the bad people had to let Saba, and his fellow Jews in Russia, come home. Former Soviet refusenik and prisoner, Israeli politician, human rights activist and author Natan Sharansky with his wife Avital after his release from prison in the Soviet Union.

He landed in Israel on February 11, 1986 (Moshe Shai/FLASH90.) As my parents’ daughter, I am forever aware that I owe my existence to the people who yelled with my mother. I wouldn’t be here today if you, the Jews of the world, wouldn’t have opened your hearts and your homes and your purses. You marched in rallies, sent letters to your representatives, paid my mother’s tickets as she flew from one demonstration to another. You hosted her. You encouraged her. Your yells broke through the Iron Curtain. They broke into my father’s cell long before they broke him out of it. And they broke into my inner geography, where they ring and echo to this day. I want you to know that I remember, and that I am grateful. I want you to know that when I saw my parents playing with their grandchildren near Lefortovo Prison several years ago, it was your victory that made me almost dance with joy. Thirty-five years earlier, my father’s KGB investigator told him that “we don’t let heroes leave Lefortovo alive.” You, the Jewish People, proved him wrong.

Your spirit and strength in those years freed a man, and brought an empire to its knees. When I feel tired, when I fear for the future, when we squabble and fight within ourselves, I go back to your echos inside me, and find hope. The View from the Gulag | The Weekly Standard Scroll down for next story THE MAGAZINE: From the June 21 Issue The View from the Gulag From the June 21, 2004 issue: An interview with Natan Sharansky: He describes the "beautiful moment" when the news of the Evil Empire speech reached Siberia. Editor's Note: Natan Sharansky was born in Ukraine in 1948 and studied mathematics in Moscow. He worked as an English interpreter for the great Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, and himself became a champion of Soviet Jewry and a worker for human rights. Convicted in 1978 on trumped-up charges of treason and spying for the United States, Sharansky was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Jun 21, 2004 | The Weekly Standard Sorry, you've reached the limit on the articles you can view.

Editor's Note: Natan Sharansky was born in Ukraine in 1948 and studied mathematics in Moscow. He worked as an English interpreter for the great Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, and himself became a champion of Soviet Jewry and a worker for human rights. Convicted in 1978 on trumped-up charges of treason and spying for the United States, Sharansky was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After years in the Siberian gulag, he was released in a U.S.-Soviet prisoner exchange in 1986 and moved to Israel, where he founded a political party promoting the acculturation of Soviet immigrants. He is now a minister without portfolio in the government of Ariel Sharon. Tom Rose, a frequent contributor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, interviewed Sharansky in Jerusalem. Do you remember the first time you heard the name Ronald Reagan? I was already a longtime prisoner when Ronald Reagan was elected. I didn't know much about him, and I can't say I remember having heard much about him.

None of us in the Gulag knew much, and I actually knew less than most because I spent so much time in private punishment cells, where for months at a time you were totally isolated. Our first indication that Ronald Reagan might well be the key figure in our struggle, the struggle of all people fighting against tyranny, came from the ferocious denunciations of him that appeared more frequently in the official Soviet press. Now, all Soviets were experts in the art of "reading between the lines," and of course us dissidents, we were the professors of this high art form. In fact, we were so good at reading between the lines, we almost could piece together events as they really happened by what the authorities were not telling us. What they did not tell us was as important as what they did tell us, if not even more important. We had very mixed feelings at first. Remember, we accepted it as a given that Jimmy Carter was the world's great human rights advocate. Only later, after we saw what words without action can mean, did it occur to us that words were all he could offer. But to his credit, it was Jimmy Carter who insisted on keeping the issue in the international spotlight.

Remember, prior to him, no one seemed willing to offer even words. All we knew about Reagan was that he was a poorly regarded actor, and after living for so long in an Orwellian world where play-acting was all we ever experienced from our own leaders, the very fact that Reagan was an actor, I will say, left us far more concerned than encouraged at first. Were there any particular Reagan moments that you can recall being sources of strength or encouragement to you and your colleagues? I have to laugh. People who take freedom for granted, Ronald Reagan for granted, always ask such questions. Of course! It was the great brilliant moment when we learned that Ronald Reagan had proclaimed the Soviet Union an Evil Empire before the entire world. There was a long list of all the Western leaders who had lined up to condemn the evil Reagan for daring to call the great Soviet Union an evil empire right next to the front-page story about this dangerous, terrible man who wanted to take the world back to the dark days of the Cold War. This was the moment. It was the brightest, most glorious day. Finally a spade had been called a spade. Finally, Orwell's Newspeak was dead.

President Reagan had from that moment made it impossible for anyone in the West to continue closing their eyes to the real nature of the Soviet Union. It was one of the most important, freedom-affirming declarations, and we all instantly knew it. For us, that was the moment that really marked the end for them, and the beginning for us. The lie had been exposed and could never, ever be untold now. This was the end of Lenin's "Great October Bolshevik Revolution" and the beginning of a new revolution, a freedom revolution--Reagan's Revolution. We were all in and out of punishment cells so often--me more than most--that we developed our own tapping language to communicate with each other between the walls. A secret code. We had to develop new communication methods to pass on this great, impossible news. We even used the toilets to tap on. In your memoir, Fear No Evil, you write that President Reagan was captivated by this story. The first time I met President Reagan I told him this story. I felt free to tell him everything. I told him of the brilliant day when we learned about his Evil Empire speech from an article in Pravda or Izvestia that found its way into the prison.

When I said that our whole block burst out into a kind of loud celebration and that the world was about to change, well, then the president, this great tall man, just lit up like a schoolboy. His face lit up and beamed. He jumped out of his seat like a shot and started waving his arms wildly and calling for everyone to come in to hear "this man's" story. It was really only then that I started to appreciate that it wasn't just in the Soviet Union that President Reagan must have suffered terrible abuse for this great speech, but that he must have been hurt at home too. It seemed as though our moment of joy was the moment of his own vindication. That the great punishment he had endured for this speech was worth it. Can it really be said that Ronald Reagan was actually responsible for an event as great as the collapse of the Soviet Union? Yes. One man in one office? Yes. Absolutely. But not one man alone. If I would be permitted to widen the credit a little more, I would say the collapse of the Soviet Union is attributable to three men. Andrei Sakharov, Scoop Jackson, and Ronald Reagan.

These were the people who brought moral clarity to the conflict and started the chain of events which led to the end of Soviet communism. Sakharov to the Russian people, Senator Jackson to the American government, and Ronald Reagan on behalf of the American people to the world and thus back to the Soviet Union. They created the policy of linkage: That international relations and human rights must be linked. That how a government treats its own people cannot be separated from how that government could be expected to treat other countries. That how governments honor commitments they make at home will show the world how they will honor their commitments abroad. His constant, unalloyed trumpeting of freedom's call, his uncompromising opposition to tyranny and bold optimism--where do you think this came from? I don't think Hollywood. It came from him. From inside Ronald Reagan. He had two things all of us need but few of us seem to have. Ronald Reagan had both moral clarity and courage. He had the moral clarity to understand the truth, and the courage both to speak the truth and to do what needed to be done to support it. There was more to Reagan than rhetoric.

His biggest single contribution was that he stopped allowing the Soviet Union to use the United States to strengthen itself at America's expense. The Soviet Union had learned--been taught, actually--that the United States and Europe were there to provide the very source of energy and support the Soviet system needed to survive. Ronald Reagan instinctively understood this when no one else did. This is the most important paradox of all. Freedom's greatest threat was in many ways the product of this freedom. Soviet tyranny was completely dependent upon the West for its very survival. Reagan knew this. The Soviet Union, a nation of 200 million slaves, could not possibly keep pace with the technological, economic, or scientific developments taking place in the West. The moment Reagan took that support away from the Soviet Union, it started to fall apart. How is it that truths about freedom and totalitarianism which appear today so evident and obvious can be completely missed for so long and by so many people? Appeasement is not the exception for democracies. It is the rule for democracies. Appeasement is a powerful side effect of democracy. The West's appeasement policy toward the Soviet Union began almost the moment its appeasement policy toward Nazi Germany ended.

It didn't end until Ronald Reagan. Democratic leaders need peace to survive. Because democracies have to reflect the will of their people, democratic leaders choose appeasement because anything is preferable to war. Free peoples go to war only when they have no other choice. By the way, this is democracy's great strength as well as its great weakness. Democracies are both so free, so stable, and so prosperous because their people don't want war. Therefore, Western leaders were only continuing in this tradition by believing that the Soviet Union needed to be transformed from a deadly rival into a partner for cooperation. Even President Carter, who understood human rights better than any president before him, always chose to appease the Soviet Union rather than to force it to compete with the West. Since we can't reproduce Ronald Reagan himself, what practical lessons from him can we apply today to achieve a similar effect? Linkage. This is the most important thing Reagan did. He established the pattern and insisted upon compliance. It worked to bring down the greatest, most totalitarian empire in all history. It can surely work today against enemies no less dangerous but far less powerful. But linkage takes both courage and moral clarity.

Reagan's great strength was his optimistic faith in freedom and that every human being deserved freedom and that this freedom is a force that can liberate and empower and enrich and ennoble. It is hard to imagine two people more different in life experiences than Natan Sharansky and Ronald Reagan. Did you feel those differences on a human level? We both saw the world similarly. That is what matters. Not the experiences themselves but what is learned from them. People used to say that Reagan's jokes exposed him as a simpleton. To me they revealed his strengths and convictions. He took great joy in telling me the old joke about the time Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev and his deputy Alexei Kosygin discussed what would happen to the USSR if it really did conform to the Helsinki Accords and adopted a truly open emigration policy. "You and I would be the only two citizens left in the USSR," Brezhnev said. "Speak for yourself," answered Kosygin. Ronald Reagan understood the power of this joke. He stood up to evil. He had the courage to fight evil and the wisdom to defeat it. It seems Ronald Reagan did Alexei Kosygin one better. Today the Soviet Union has no citizens! Indeed.

Thanks to Ronald Reagan, to the legacy he leaves behind, we now know that totalitarianism can be beaten and that freedom can come to anyone who wants it. Web Link: Irwin Cotler: Pursuing justice | CIJA Close Irwin Cotler: Pursuing justice So mild-mannered and soft-spoken is Irwin Cotler – onetime Canadian law professor, longtime politician and human rights advocate – that he hardly seems combative enough to have participated in some of the world’s toughest struggles for justice. Yet, Montreal-born Cotler, now 73, helped free Soviet Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky in 1986 and South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in 1990. And today, he has stepped up his fight to free Jonathan Pollard. Cotler is also laboring to advance Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. Not one simply to give speeches and write papers, not one to sit long in any one place, Cotler credits his attorney father, Nathan Cotler, for insisting that he pursue justice. He credits his mother, Fay Dubrovsky Cotler, for explaining to him that in order to pursue justice, he must personally feel the injustice around him.

So successful has Irwin Cotler been in drawing media attention to political prisoners and freeing them that Canadian magazine Mclean’s dubbed him “Counsel for the Oppressed.” We meet in a Jerusalem hotel coffee shop. Cotler has just been to South Africa for the Mandela funeral, as a member of the Canadian delegation. With his plaid brown jacket, open-necked shirt and thin metallic glasses, he looks studious, professorial, and exhibits none of the bombast or flamboyance associated with politicians. On this late December morning, he is incensed that Israel has freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of the peace talks. “In Canada,” he observes forcefully, “we don’t free terrorists – period.” Though he speaks slowly, he has so many anecdotes to impart that he rarely takes a breath. He has served off and on as a member of Canada’s parliament since 1999. His constituents love him. In his first election, he won 92 percent of the vote. From 2003 to 2006, he served as minister of justice and attorney general. He was selected to both posts for his mental toughness in addition to his wisdom.

When he took up the two roles, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency headlined the article: “Canada’s new justice minister, Irwin Cotler, is no shrinking violet.” And he proved JTA right. He made the Canadian Supreme Court the most gender equal in the world by appointing two women judges; he initiated the first prosecution under the Canadian War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act for incitement to genocide in Rwanda; and he quashed more wrongful convictions in a single year than any previous minister. While Cotler studied at a Jewish day school in Montreal his father stressed the need to pursue justice. “As a child,” he tells The Jerusalem Report, “I didn’t know the profundity of what he was saying.” From his parents, Cotler came to realize that the best way to implement the Jewish value of justice was to redeem political prisoners who had been unlawfully incarcerated. He received a BA in 1961 from McGill University, graduated from law school there and went on to become a law professor at McGill for the next 30 years. In 1992, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of his country’s highest honors.

Cotler took up the case of Soviet refusenik leader Natan Sharansky in the 1970s. Sharansky was arrested in 1977 on charges of spying and treason, and sentenced to 13 years of forced labor in a Siberian gulag. Serving as Sharansky’s counsel, Cotler worked tirelessly to win the Russian’s release, never frustrated by the delays. “I always believed he would be freed,” Cotler says. Sharansky was released in February 1986, becoming the first political prisoner freed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In the late 1990s, Cotler asked Gorbachev, by now out of power, what role, if any, he as head of the USSR, had played in Sharansky’s release. Gorbachev told Cotler that he hadn’t even heard of Sharansky until 1984, when he visited Canada as minister of agriculture. Hoping to negotiate an agriculture cooperation deal with the Canadians, Gorbachev was distracted by demands that the Soviets free Sharansky, before any deal could be made.

A year later, upon taking over as Soviet leader, Gorbachev asked to see the Sharansky file. “Yes,” the Soviet leader told Cotler, “he was a troublemaker, but not a criminal, and it was costing us to keep him in prison – all the demands and protests.” Parallel to the Sharansky case, it seemed only natural for Cotler to take up the cause of South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela. Cotler visited South Africa for the first time in 1981, as a guest of the South African Union of Jewish Students. By that time, Mandela had been in jail for 19 years of a life sentence, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state. During a later visit, he was invited to address students at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on the topic of “If Sharansky, Why Not Mandela?” Cotler intended drawing comparisons between the two men, both political prisoners, both fighting for their freedom. But mentioning Mandela’s name in public in South Africa was a punishable offense, and hence fraught with risk for the Canadian.

As he ended his talk, Cotler was not surprised to find himself detained and taken to a meeting with Roelof “Pik” Botha, the South African minister of foreign affairs. To Cotler’s amazement, Botha had a photo of Sharansky on his wall. Botha told Cotler he wanted to ask the man who had defended Sharansky, a great hero to South Africans for resisting the Soviet Communists, how he could, in the same breath, speak about Mandela, so obviously a Soviet Communist ally. The two men debated the subject for the next three hours, with Cotler arguing that both Sharansky and Mandela were fighting for freedom and human rights. Rather than expel Cotler on the spot, Botha sent him on a tour of South Africa to view what the foreign minister called “the true nature of apartheid.” Returning to Botha after the tour, Cotler said he agreed with the foreign minister that South Africa was a democracy – but only for whites. Upon hearing of the Cotler-Botha dialogue, Mandela’s attorneys asked the Canadian to become the prisoner’s counselor in Canada, and Cotler agreed. Mandela was released from jail in 1990.

In 2012, Cotler met in South Africa again with Botha, who admitted to him that he was so impressed with Cotler’s arguments on behalf of Mandela that he became the first South African minister to call for Mandela’s release from prison. He also served in Mandela’s government in the 1990s. The Sharansky and Mandela cases were far more straightforward for Cotler than that of Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew convicted of passing classified information to Israel while working as a civilian intelligence analyst. In 1987, Pollard began serving a life sentence, but the campaign to free him was slow to gain strength. Long before anyone had taken up Pollard’s cause, Cotler, who served as Pollard’s counsel, was in constant touch with him. For two years every day, Pollard phoned Cotler from prison at 7 a.m. Of late, Cotler has renewed his effort to get the spy released. He is organizing a letter to US President Barack Obama that will be signed by 15 leading constitutional lawyers calling for Pollard’s release. In the midst of pursuing justice for political prisoners, Cotler has maintained a long-standing and special personal relationship with the State of Israel.

During the mid-1970s, Cotler decided to spend summers traveling through the Arab world. In 1977, soon after Menachem Begin was elected prime minister, Egyptian colleagues invited Cotler to meet with president Anwar Sadat, who asked the Canadian: Can I make peace with the Likud? Can I make peace with Menachem Begin? Cotler said yes to both questions. When he was next in Israel, Cotler met with young Likud Knesset Members and Ariela Zeevi, the Likud parliamentary secretary. The Likud MKs arranged for Begin to host Cotler, who told the prime minister of Sadat’s questions, adding that the Egyptian leader had seemed genuine in his hope to make peace with Israel. Begin appeared pleased. At first, Zeevi, a close confidante of Begin, thought Cotler might be an Arab spy; after all, though Jewish and proIsrael, he traveled freely through the Arab world, a rare trick. But she overcame her suspicions. They were married on March 26, 1979, the day that Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt.

“My wife had such a major presence within the Likud that I truly believed our getting married was a loss for the State of Israel because she left her job and came to live in Canada with me,” Cotler says. Of their four children, two live in Israel. Ironically when Cotler met recently with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, both asked him similar questions to those that Sadat had asked. Cotler again responded yes to both questions; both leaders and their countries could make peace. When in 2000 Canada voted to support a UN Security Council resolution urging Israel to use restraint toward Palestinian protesters, he argued that it was unfair to blame Israel for such treatment while exonerating the Palestinians for their violence. His stance earned him a severe condemnation from his own Liberal Party lawmakers. Today, Cotler has little trouble defending Israel against charges of apartheid. “On the macro level,” he observes, “Israel is a democratic country. It is not right to call Israel an apartheid state because it demeans the struggle against the real apartheid that occurred in South Africa. This is a free and democratic state. But as is the case in any democracy, there are issues of concern.

How does a state treat its minorities, in Israel’s case, the Israeli Arabs and the Palestinians? How does it treat the African immigrant community?” Cotler has turned the advocacy of human rights for political prisoners into a formula to be used each time he or others tackle tough cases. “It’s not enough to make representations to the USSR,” he comments. “Numerous other actions must be taken to get the target’s attention. These include getting world leaders involved, mobilizing parliaments and intergovernmental bodies such as the UN, showing how a country has violated international covenants or treaties, getting women’s groups, student movements and the media involved, holding international mock tribunals.” Often teaming up with Harvard Law School Prof. Alan Dershowitz, Cotler calls his formula “the mobilization of shame against the human rights violator” – in effect, a public relations blitz against a world superpower holding a political prisoner. Dershowitz calls Cotler his mirror image in Canada.

Cotler has been at the barricades for justice for decades; and even today he has a dozen causes with which he is involved – human-rights abuses in Iran and Syria, the Pollard case, the 60,000 Africans in Israel mostly from Sudan and Eritrea. He still travels often; and he is still one of Canada’s most formidable politicians. He wishes today that he had had the chance to tell his father, who died in 1980, that he had in fact pursued justice and had not done too badly. “I would say to him, if I could, that both he and my mother are responsible for anything good that I have been able to do.” 1st Candle: Fear No Evil: Hanukkah in the Gulag Profiles in Modern Jewish Courage, 1st Candle: Fear No Evil: from A Different Light: The Hanukkah Celebration , page 53 other excerpts Natan (Anatoli) Sharansky was arrested in 1977 for his Zionist activism, his insistence on the right of Russian Jews to make aliyah to Israel. However he was accused of the much more serious crime of treason, for spying for the United States.

He sat in prison from 1977 to 1986 including eight years in a Soviet prison camp in Siberia. After continuous public protest in the West, spear-headed by his wife Avital, Natan Sharansky was released in a spy exchange between the US and the USSR in 1986. After making aliyah and establishing a Russian immigrant party in 1996, he became Israeli Minister of Industry and Trade and later of the Interior. His memoirs of the Soviet period are filled with sparkling anecdotes about the power of the few against the many  the power that derives from "fearing no evil" and laughing in the face of oppression. The phrase, "fear no evil," is taken from the little book of Psalms, which he carried with him through his long imprisonment. The holiday of Hanukkah was approaching. At the time, I was the only Jew in the prison zone, but when I explained that Hanukkah was a holiday of national freedom, of returning to one's own culture in the face of forced assimilation, my friends in our "kibbutz" decided to celebrate it with me.

They even made me a wooden menorah, decorated it, and found some candles. In the evening I lit the first candle and recited a prayer that I had composed for this occasion. Tea was poured, and I began to describe the heroic struggle of the Maccabees to save their people from slavery. For each zek [a prisoner in the Soviet Gulag] who was listening, this story had its own personal meaning. At one point the duty officer appeared in the barracks. He made a list of all those present, but did not interfere. On each of the subsequent evenings of Hanukkah I took out my menorah, lit the candles, and recited the appropriate blessing. Then I blew out the candles, as I didn't have any extras. Gavriliuk, the collaborator whose bunk was across from mine, watched and occasionally grumbled, "Look at him, he made himself a synagogue. And what if there's a fire?" On the sixth night of Hanukkah the authorities confiscated my menorah with all my candles. I ran to the duty officer to find out what had happened. "The candlesticks were made from state materials; this is illegal. You could be punished for this alone and the other prisoners are complaining.

Theyï¿½re afraid you'll start a fire." I began to insist. "In two days Hanukkah will be over and then I'll return this 'state property' to you. Now, however, this looks like an attempt to deny me the opportunity of celebrating Jewish holidays." The duty officer began hesitating. Then he phoned his superior and got his answer: "A camp is not a synagogue. We won't permit Sharansky to pray here." I was surprised by the bluntness of that remark, and immediately declared a hunger strike. In a statement to the procurator general I protested against the violation of my national and religious rights, and against KGB [Russian secret police] interference in my personal life. When you begin an unlimited hunger strike, you never know when or how it will end. Are the authorities interested at that moment in putting a swift end to it, or don't they give a damn? In a few weeks a commission from Moscow was due to arrive in the camp. I didn't know this at the time, but the authorities, presumably, were very aware of it, which probably explains why I was summoned to Major Osin's office two days later, in the evening.

Osin was an enormous, flabby man of around fifty, with small eyes and puffy eyelids, who seemed to have long ago lost interest in everything but food. But he was a master of intrigue who had successfully overtaken many of his colleagues on the road to advancement. During my brief time in the camp he had weathered several scandals and had always managed to pass the buck to his subordinates. I could see that he had enjoyed his power over the zeks and liked to see them suffer. But he never forgot that the zeks were, above all, a means for advancing his career, and he knew how to back off in a crisis. Osin pulled a benevolent smile over his face as he tried to talk me out of my hunger strike. Osin promised to see to it personally that in the future nobody would hinder me from praying, and that this should not be a concern of the KGB. "Then what's the problem?" I said. "Give me back the menorah, as tonight is the last evening of Hanukkah.

Let me celebrate it now, and taking into account your assurances for the future, I shall end the hunger strike." "What's a menorah?" "Candlesticks." But a protocol for its confiscation had already been drawn up, and Osin couldn't back down in front of the entire camp. As I looked at this predator, sitting at an elegant polished table and wearing a benevolent smile, I was seized by an amusing idea. "Listen," I said, "I'm sure you have the menorah somewhere. It's very important to me to celebrate the last night of Hanukkah. Why not let me do it here and now, together with you? You'll give me the menorah, I'll light the candles and say the prayer, and if all goes well I'll end the hunger strike." Osin thought it over and promptly the confiscated menorah appeared from his desk. He summoned Gavriliuk, who was on duty in the office, to bring in a large candle. "I need eight candles," I said. (In fact I needed nine, but when it came to Jewish rituals I was still a novice.) Gavriliuk took out a knife and began to cut the candle into several smaller ones.

But it didn't come out right; apparently the knife was too dull. Then Osin took out a handsome inlaid pocketknife and deftly cut me eight candles. "Go, I'll call you later," he said to Gavriliuk. Gavriliuk simply obeyed orders. He was a fierce, gloomy man, and this sight must have infuriated him. I arranged the candles and went to the coatrack for my hat, explaining to Osin that "during the prayer you must stand with your head covered and at the end say 'Amen.'" He put on his major's hat and stood. I lit the candles and recited my own prayer in Hebrew, which went something like this: "Blessed are You, Adonai, for allowing me to rejoice on this day of Hanukkah, the holiday of our liberation, the holiday of our return to the way of our fathers. Blessed are You, Adonai, for allowing me to light these candles.

May you allow me to light the Hanukkah candles many times in your city, Jerusalem, with my wife, Avital, and my family and friends." This time, however, inspired by the sight of Osin standing meekly at attention, I added in Hebrew: "And may the day come when all our enemies, who today are planning our destruction, will stand before us and hear our prayers and say 'Amen.'" "Amen," Osin echoed back. He sighed with relief, sat down and removed his hat. For some time we looked silently at the burning candles. They quickly melted, and the hot wax was spread pleasantly over the glass surface of the table. Then Osin caught himself, summoned Gavriliuk, and brusquely ordered him to clean it up. I returned to the barracks in a state of elation, and our kibbutz made tea and merrily celebrated the end of Hanukkah. Naturally, I told them about Osin's "conversion," and it soon became the talk of the camp. I realized that revenge was inevitable, but I also knew they had plenty of other reasons to punish me.

Anatoly Sharansky's Final Statement in the Soviet Court presented before being sentenced on trumped-up charges for treason and espionage, July 14, 1978 Sharansky addressed his first remarks to those who were not in the courtroom, his wife Avital who emigrated to Israel and the Jewish people: "During my interrogation the chief investigators threatened me that I might be executed by a firing squad, or imprisoned for at least fifteen years. But if I agreed to cooperate with the investigation for the purpose of destroying the Jewish emigration movement, they promised me freedom and a quick reunion with my wife. "Five years ago, I submitted my application for exit to Israel. Now I am further than ever from my dream. It would seem to be cause for regret. But it is absolutely the other way around. I am happy. I am happy that I lived honorably, at peace with my conscience. I never compromised my soul, even under the threat of death. "I am happy that I helped people.

I am proud that I knew and worked with such honorable, brave and courageous people as Sakharov, Orlov, Ginzburg, who are carrying on the traditions of the Russian intelligentsia [in defending human rights in the Soviet Union]. I am fortunate to have been witness to the process of the liberation of Jews of the USSR. "I hope that the absurd accusation against me and the entire Jewish emigration movement will not hinder the liberation of my people. My near ones and friends know how I wanted to exchange activity in the emigration movement for a life with my wife Avital, in Israel. "For more that two thousand years the Jewish people, my people, have been dispersed.

But wherever they are, wherever Jews are found, every year they have repeated,'Next year in Jerusalem.' Now, when I am further than ever from my people, from Avital, facing many arduous years of imprisonment, I say, turning to my people, my Avital, 'Next year in Jerusalem.' "Now I turn to you, the court, who were required to confirm a predetermined sentence: To you I have nothing to say." When in 1986 Sharansky was finally released in an exchange of spies and was reunited with his wife Avital, his first words to her recalled the final words of his declaration in the Soviet court, "Next Year in Jerusalem." He is reputed to have said, with his inimitable sense of humor, "Sorry for being late."

Question: Natan Sharansky was released from prison in the USSR to begin a new life where?
Answer: Israel